Front cover IBM BladeCenter Virtual Fabric Solutions Highlights IBM Virtual Fabric Mode and Switch Independent Mode Defines the concepts and benefits of virtual NICs (vNICs) Outlines steps to create various vNIC solutions Rufus Credle Martin Gingras Scott Lorditch James Mulholland Bob Nevins Rogerio Spragiaro ibm.com/redbooks International Technical Support Organization IBM BladeCenter Virtual Fabric Solutions August 2012 SG24-7966-01 Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices” on page vii. Second Edition (August 2012) This edition applies to the IBM BladeCenter I/O options Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter, Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II, Broadcom 2-port 10Gb Virtual Fabric Adapter, BNT Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module, and Cisco Nexus 4001I Switch Module. © Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2012. All rights reserved. Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp. Contents Notices . vii Trademarks . viii Preface . ix The team who wrote this book . ix Now you can become a published author, too! . xii Comments welcome. xii Stay connected to IBM Redbooks . xiii Part 1. Introduction to Virtual Fabric solutions . 1 Chapter 1. Overview of virtual network interface controllers . 3 1.1 Overview of virtualization technologies . 4 1.2 Overview of virtual NICs . 5 1.3 vNIC modes. 6 1.4 Mode comparison . 8 1.5 Mode selection . 9 1.6 BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager Advanced . 10 Chapter 2. Converged fabrics: FCoE and iSCSI capabilities . 11 2.1 Fibre Channel over Ethernet protocol stack . 12 2.2 iSCSI . 14 2.3 iSCSI versus FCoE . 15 2.3.1 Key similarities . 15 2.3.2 Key differences . 16 Part 2. IBM Virtual Fabric Mode . 17 Chapter 3. Solution architecture . 19 3.1 Overview . 20 3.2 Architecture . 22 3.2.1 Fibre Channel over Ethernet architecture . 25 3.2.2 Internet Small Computer System Interface architecture . 27 3.3 Planning considerations . 29 Chapter 4. Supported products . 31 4.1 Overview of supported components . 32 4.2 Emulex 10Gb Virtual Fabric Adapters . 33 4.2.1 Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter . 33 4.2.2 Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II . 37 © Copyright IBM Corp. 2012. All rights reserved. iii 4.3 BNT Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module. 39 4.4 QLogic Virtual Fabric Extension Module . 47 Chapter 5. Configuring the components. 51 5.1 Configuring the Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter . 52 5.1.1 Upgrading firmware. 52 5.1.2 Configuring the adapter in the UEFI . 54 5.2 Configuring the BNT Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module . 59 5.2.1 IBM System Networking OS CLI . 59 5.2.2 isCLI . 65 5.2.3 Browser-based interface . 66 5.3 Creating vNIC in IBM Virtual Fabric Mode . 69 5.3.1 vNIC features and considerations . 70 5.3.2 Enabling and disabling vNIC functions on the server . 71 5.3.3 Creating the vNICs . 75 5.4 Configuring the vNIC group. 79 5.5 High availability and vNICs . 81 5.6 Configuring vNIC VLANs. 85 5.7 Configuring the operating system . 88 5.7.1 Windows OneCommand Manager . 88 5.7.2 Configuring teams and VLANs . 93 5.7.3 Configuring a new team . 94 5.7.4 Configuring a VLAN for a physical or team adapter . 96 5.7.5 Configuring FCoE and the personality for iSCSI Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter II . 98 5.8 vNIC and VMready . 101 Chapter 6. Usage scenarios . 103 6.1 Scenario 1: vNICs only with no uplinks . 104 6.2 Scenario 2: vNICs only with one uplink . 109 6.3 Scenario 3: vNICs only with one uplink trunk . 114 6.4 Scenario 4: vNIC FCoE on Emulex II, BNT, and QLogic with IBM DS5300 . 120 6.4.1 Configuring the QLogic Virtual Fabric Extension Module . 121 6.4.2 Implementing the FCoE-enabled BladeCenter with Virtual Fabric Switch and Extension Module . 121 6.4.3 Defining the FCoE and FC fabric topology . 125 6.4.4 Configuring the BNT Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Modules . 126 6.4.5 Configuring the QLogic Virtual Extension Modules. 132 6.4.6 Switching the Virtual Fabric Extension Module to N-Port Virtualization mode if connected to an existing FC fabric. 137 6.4.7 Configuring the FCoE VLAN ID on the CNA . 139 6.4.8 Configuring FCoE for IBM Virtual Fabric VNIC . 141 iv IBM BladeCenter Virtual Fabric Solutions 6.4.9 Summary. 145 6.5 Scenario 5: vNIC iSCSI on Emulex II, BNT, and QLogic with IBM DS5300 . 145 6.5.1 Key results . 146 6.5.2 Configuration details for vNIC mode . 146 Part 3. Switch Independent Mode . 153 Chapter 7. Solution architecture . 155 7.1 Mode comparison . 156 7.1.1 IBM Virtual Fabric Mode . 156 7.1.2 Switch Independent Mode. 156 7.2 Solution overview . 158 7.3 Features . 160 Chapter 8. Supported products . 165 8.1 Overview of Switch Independent Mode. 166 8.2 Virtual Fabric adapters . 167 8.2.1 Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II . 167 8.2.2 Broadcom 2-port 10Gb Virtual Fabric Adapter . 171 8.3 Virtual Fabric Switch Modules . 172 8.3.1 BNT Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module. 172 8.3.2 Cisco Nexus 4001I Switch Module . 180 8.3.3 Brocade Converged 10GbE Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter . 188 8.4 10Gb Ethernet Pass-Thru Module for IBM BladeCenter . 192 Chapter 9. Configuring the components. ..